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Padang/Balangan/Canggu

My last few weeks in Bali were wonderful. My phone crapped out, so there aren’t quite as many pictures as I’d like, but it was great nonetheless.

After school, my friends Deena and Ivan and I decided to go stay in Pedang Pedang, a sweet little coastal town on the Southern tip of Bali. We found a rather nice homestay for a decent price, and the rooms were air conditioned – backpacker gold!

Unfortunately for us, we all came down with a little somethin’-somethin’, and had to take it easy for a few days. Once I was feeling better (poor Deena got hit the hardest) I started exploring the surrounding area and – what do you know – bumped into my friends Molly and Karen.

Karen and I spent the next few days puttering around several beaches in Bali, eventually meeting up with my lovely friend, Pip. Here’s what we found:

Pedang Pedang

It’s very quiet in Pedang Pedang – just a few little beaches and a few places to eat. Frankly, we found it almost perfect. It was nearby the touristy Uluwatu, which we mostly avoided. There’s not much to do in PP except enjoy the beaches and pools, which is exactly what we did. I had always wanted to try stand-up paddle boarding, so we rented a board on the beach. Karen showed me how to paddle while I sat on the front…

… and then we switched places. It was really fun! Totally a hobby I could see myself getting into more. When there weren’t too many waves, we took the opportunity to fool around a bit with our yoga moves, here’s me being a show-off:

All-in-all, Pedang Pedang was a nice break for us.

Balangan

Dear Goodness, I’m not even sure how to categorize our time in Balangan. First of all, the beach was beautiful. It’s a little surfer spot with beautiful ocean waves and cliffs and tiny warungs in the sand. Have I explained this before? A warung is a family-owned Indonesian business – typically a cafe, but it can also be a convenience store or a hotel. In Balangan beach, there were probably 10 warungs in a row, which are made of plywood and bamboo. I’m guessing there haven’t been any strong winds lately, because they’re all still standing. Here’s a peek at what they look like:

We picked one to stay in, and Karen and I shared a room with a nice big bed at a moderately priced $5/night. In the evening we laid down in our room and listened to the sounds of the ocean. As it is rainy season now in Bali, the clouds began to roll in in the afternoon, and the rain started at night. At first I thought about how grateful I was to be able to fall asleep to thunderstorm sounds and ocean sounds at the same time, until it began to rain… in our bed.

Yes, oh, yes. It rained in our room and into our bed. We covered all of our belongings quickly with our rain gear, and climbed back onto our soggy mattress. We laughed for a good long while, and eventually fell asleep in twisty positions to avoid the accumulating puddles.

I wouldn’t say definitively to avoid Balangan, because honestly it was quite charming. But maybe wait for the dry season, yeah?

Canggu

Canggu is one of those beaches that’s about to explode in popularity – it’s full of young ex-pats who are starting a little surfer community of their own. While I liked the vibe of Canggu a lot, I’d say in another year or so it will be too modernized to even be charming. The raw/vegan cafes and surf shops with pricey Western wear are descending!

Since it was raining most of the time we were there, we didn’t do too much except practice yoga and eat local food (pity for us, right?). Here’s a quick snap of a yoga moment by the sea:

One of the highlights of Canggu was taking a jewelry making class at Alaia House of Arts. Silver is very big in Bali, and we met a really awesome woman named Ayu who taught us how to make silver jewelry! Here’s a picture of Karen banging away on a piece of silver trying to texturize it:

I made an anchor ring and I am super proud of it! Cool, huh?

I will update again soon with the rest of my Bali story. Love you all to bits!